This past Sunday afternoon I had the incredible blessing of being a part of a wonderful meeting in the home of a dear friend. I want to share my experience with you.  I would very much like to see these kinds of meetings multiplied many times over in Christian homes all over the world.

The meeting was in my friend Mike Larue’s home in Madisonville, TN. Mike participates in a men’s prayer group that meets in my living room each Saturday morning at 6:00. Our friendship goes back quite a few years.  In years gone by, he used to help me teach an adult Sunday School class. But the focus of this particular meeting was Mike’s son, Bryson, who has just turned 18. (That fact is hard for me to absorb. I tend to still see Bryson as a little elementary school kid!) Mike had invited a few men to his home for what Mike described as a “Call to Biblical Manhood” for Bryson.

There were ten of us altogether. After a meal, which Mike so graciously provided for us, we sat in a circle in his living room and, one-by-one, offered Bryson our best wisdom and counsel regarding what it means to be a man of God, based on our own years of personal life experience and our own personal study of the Scriptures, .

At the end of the meeting, Bryson knelt in the center of the room as the rest of us stood or knelt around him, laid our hands on him, and prayed.

I’m sure that there would be no way that Bryson could retain all the details of what we shared. It had to feel a little overwhelming. Some of us gave him notes and outlines for him to review later. But I am totally confident that Bryson will never forget that meeting. He was surrounded by men–none of us perfect examples–all of us with our own personal weaknesses–but men who are very determined to take our walk with Christ very, very seriously.

And I am amazed that I have nearly made it to my 70th birthday and, not only have I never experienced a meeting like that, I didn’t even know that meetings like that even happened! I was hugely impressed.

I came away thinking, “This kind of meeting has to happen more often.” When I shared my feelings with Vickie, she agreed that a similar meeting of older, Biblically wise women with a young girl could be equally significant and powerful.

So let me encourage you. If you know of young men or young women who are  entering the time of their lives when they will be making decisions that will dramatically affect what happens to them for the rest of their lives, please pray about the possibility of putting together some meetings like this one in their behalf.

I think it should go without saying that  it is critically important that you invite the right older adults. You don’t want older people who have had one year of Christian experience repeated 30 or 40 times. You want older men (or women) who have taken their walk with Christ very seriously and who have grown strong in Him. Otherwise it could easily turn into merely a fun time for the young man (or woman), but not a very spiritually profitable experience.

As you know, the times in our nation are getting darker by the day. Young Christian men and women need all the help and all the resources and all the encouragement we can give them to be equipped and prepared to stand firm in this evil day. Meetings like this one could be a powerful step in the right direction. I hope you’ll pray about taking advantage of this strategic opportunity to help some young person make the transition into Biblical manhood or womanhood.

Stay in the Battle!

Steve

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